Of Yin and of Yang
by x-Oscena-x
Summary: A princess held prisoner. An aspiring evil genius. A great warrior. A rogue hag. All mysteriously bound into a prophecy of foreseen peril. Will the knowledge to destroy good fall into the hands of evil?
1. Chapter 1: The Princess and Her Groom

This story starts out where season three left off. Raimundo had just become Leader (and got that FLIPPING awesome outfit.) They opened the temple doors, and BOOM. Every Heylin dude and dudette they ever fought and beat is waiting for the fight of the century (in Wuya's case, the millennium). Well, the fight ended up as a draw-type-thing and the bad guys went off to become weirdo wannabe Eskimos in Alaska. No. Just kidding. They went out for coffee and then everything went back to the way it pretty much was. Bad guy standings: everyone was pretty much alone, and Wuya's forced back with Chase (unstable cause yeah that's the way it is) and doesn't have her powers, Bean dude went off somewhere to do whatever it is bean dudes do, Jack still has no life, and all the other bad guys who you never see anymore went off to do their thing scaring small children and taking their lunch money. Good guy standings: still the same mushy lovey-dovey corny guys that they always were. Omi's still a little jealous of Rai, making him a little unstable. Raimundo has become a little more responsible since made leader... but not TOO responsible (this out to the rabid Rai fangals) and not too much of a goody-good. Just basically the same old Rai in a new suit with a new title. Kimiko is still (ABNOXIOUS) Kimiko. Clay is still the same old Cowboy (BROKEBACK NOT XD) Clay. NM more to say. Well... here goes the story. LOSERS.

...

Part 1: The Princess and Her Groom

There were hundreds of people there to celebrate the momentous occasion. The wedding of their dear Princess, soon to be Queen. There was to be merriment and the presentation of gifts, as well as dancing and feasting and shows, and all the other things that came along with a Royal wedding. But underneath all the smiling faces, underneath all the laughter and music, everyone was anxiously awaiting something that they had all known would happen for a long time. The prophecy would be realized on this day.

...

The groom waited patiently in his room, looking out of a large window adorning one wall. He saw his reflection in the glass and smiled, showing sharp, pearly white teeth. His molten-silver eyes glittered maliciously. The final step would be completed in just a few hours. He would have his bride. He would have the final piece to the puzzle that he had been working on for so long.

...

The bride-to-be sat stock-still on a hard wooden bench, dressed in the clothes that some servants had placed upon her. The solid white did not suit her.

She didn't care. In fact, she didn't care much about anything at the moment. She was in her usual state of meditation. She was not within herself; she was somewhere else, floating serenely in a place of nothingness.

_'A human form...'_

The thought hovered before her in her mind. She could try it, she supposed. She blinked, coming out of her Nothing Place, and stood. Slowly, beginning at the head, she began to change. Her wings molded into a silky back. Her horns slowly inched backwards into her forehead. Her fangs shortened, and her claws fell away. The black mass of hair that had been braided loosely shortened and the flowers and ribbons fell to the floor. These changes were painful, yet she did not cringe. When the transformation was complete, another thought came to her.

_'The thing you are seeking is far away...'_

She opened the window and leapt out of it. She began to fall, and then hit the ground with a sickening _crunch. _This pain was foreign to her. She stood once again- she had fallen- and made her way out into the darkness.


	2. Chapter 2: The Fighter and Her Friend

Author's Note: Action is hard to write! I hope you don't hate it. I like being discriptive in the fight scenes.

Part 2: The Fighter and Her Friend

Months later, in another part of the world:

The ad had specified that there would be good pay. 'Well there had better be,' Raven thought. She needed that money. As she slipped through the shadows, her face hidden behind a black mask, she listened hard for any sounds to break the heavy silence. The city was cold tonight. And wet. Not a good night for a walk. It had better be worth it, she kept thinking. She froze in her tracks as she rounded a corner. That must be it! She stared at the huge building lit by outer lights. The mansion sat on a hill far outside the city, and was surrounded by wrought iron fences. She began at a quicker walk, concentrating once again on her mission. She was not expected.

The clipping from the paper was tucked safely in her belt pouch, and she felt inside for it, just to make sure. There it was, folded up and slightly crinkled- her ticket to freedom...

...

She came to the fence and jumped atop it. Looking around the yard, she noticed suddenly that she wasn't alone. All around the lawn were floating lights- flashlights. The place was heavily guarded. Nothing she couldn't handle. She had broken into tight places before. This couldn't be all that difficult...

About ten minutes later, Raven stood under a window, her back pressed against the wall as a guard passed. Once all was clear, she slid open the window and swung herself in. It was dark. Perfect. She slipped easily through the darkness, completely hidden. The way she liked it. The darkness had always been her protection- her greatest friend. Through an open doorway and into another room... "What the-?!" she exclaimed as lights began to flash and loud alarms rung out deafeningly. Her pupils dilated when all of a sudden, walls opened and she was surrounded. Strange machines hovered before her, behind her, and above her. Through another door, the sounds of yelling could be heard faintly through the deafening alarms. Someone was coming! In an instant, she thought four things at once: HOW could she have been so careless as to activate a trip alarm, people were usually harder to deal with than machines, she had to get free of these machines, and she only had moments to do so. Her hands flew to her belt, and at the sudden movement, the robots fired their lasers. They never had a chance to hit their target. She slung the black whips around her expertly, the robots dropping like flies. They kept coming.

'There isn't enough room to move in here,' she realized suddenly with panic. The whips were too long to move properly in this cramped space. Her eyes snapped to the walls. No windows, and she was blocked from returning to the room from which she had come. Finding no other way, she kicked out with all her might, and the wall exploded. She was out in the moonlight and lamp-light before the dust had settled. Again, she was fighting for her life under a curtain of flying robots. She slung them into each other, ripped out their insides, and sliced them apart with her whips. 'They just keep coming!' she thought angrily, dodging a frenzy of lasers.

Everything froze. She breathed heavily, keeping her arms up high and waiting for them to begin attacking again. They backed off.

'What-?'

A rumble was heard and the earth shook. Another noise was heard... a high pitched buzz...

"Agh!" she yelled in pain as she was hit from behind by an exploding miniature missile and was thrown forward into the air. She slammed to the hard ground and skidded to a halt. Her eyes were screwed shut and her fists clenched the earth as she slowly pulled herself to her feet. Her weapons laid several feet away from her on the ground.

The trembling began again, and she spun around. A giant human-shaped robot towered above her menacingly.

"You're going to pay for that," she said under her breath angrily. She was mad, and that wasn't a good thing for whoever had attacked her.

"Behold! Jack Spicer's _evil _giant gaurdbot!"

In the head! The person controlling the robot was in it's head!

"I don't know what you're doing here, but you won't- huh?!"

The woman seamed to disappear into thin air. A few metallic 'clunk's were heard, and then everything was quiet.

"Where did they- gah!!"

Raven held Jack's arms tightly behind his back with one hand and held the whip secure around his neck with the other; her narrowed purple eyes lit with fire.

"Oh please, don't hurt me!!" he cried pitifully.

"Why not?" Raven replied in a deadly, accented whisper.

"I'll do anything!!" Jack begged.

She released him without hesitation, pushing him forward and sending him crashing into a wall. "Good." She opened up her belt pouch and pulled out the ad Crumbling it in her fist, she tossed it to his feet. "Because there IS something I need you to do."


	3. Chapter 3: Laying Down the Line

Part 3: Laying Down the Line

A while later, Raven sat in a large, dark room in front of a desk.On the other side sat Jack.

"So- What do you do?" he asked in a business-like manner.

"Fight," Raven said her eyes revealing nothing, "and I want to make something perfectly clear. I am not a common thief." She couldn't believe she was dealing with this... _child._

"What is the objective?" Raven asked.

"Shen-gong-wu retrieval," Jack said.

"All I do is obtain these items?"

"You got it, sister."

A vein twitched in Raven's temple but she let it go. "What are these 'shen-gong-wu'?"

"It's all right here," Jack said, holding up a manila envelope.

"Fine." Raven said, holding out her hand.

Continuing in a business-like manner, Jack began, titling the envelope away from her hand, "Now I'll have to get back to you and see if we have any openings-"

"Let me clarify Spicer," Raven said coolly- dangerously, her unidentifyable accent rolling off her toungue, "either you require me or you do not. If you choose to employ me, keep foremost in your mind that I am NOT a possession and you have no real power over me whatsoever. If you are not going to employ me then be silent. I am certain I will be of service elsewhere."

Looking around at the broken robots littered around the floor, then back at Raven's scary expression, Jack said in a small voice, "Whatever you say."

Raven grinned under her mask as she took the envelope. Maybe the child wouldn't be so bad after all.

...

That night, she slept outside. Behind the grounds of Jack's mansion, about a mile away, she stretched out on a limb of one of the tall oaks that partially surrounded the place, the cell phone Jack had given her for calling her when she was needed tucked in her belt pouch safely, a flashlight still in her hand, and the file laying on her stomach. She had read through it three times, and had fallen asleep halfway through it a fourth. She had learned about the magical artifacts called the 'shen-gong-wu' and the xiaolin dragons that fought to keep them out of the hands of the heylin witch Wuya and (in his own words) Jack Spicer, 'evil boy genius'. The file had included a character profile for each xiaolin warrior (and not very kind ones either). There were four of them: Clay Bailey of the element earth, Kimiko Tohomiko of fire, Raimundo Pedrosa of wind, and Omi of water. The profiles also contained personal information, history, and strengths of the dragons... as well as a few comments Jack had added- 'q-ball' and 'hick' being some of the kinder ones. There was also a list of all the activated shen-gong-wu and their properties. It was all interesting enough, but she couldn't shake the feeling of familiarity, as if she knew it all already. Raven smiled in her sleep, clutching the papers closer to her. She had made it- she was finally getting a chance to fit in...


	4. Chapter 4: The First Encounter

Author's Note: I've gotten some questions about Raven's accent. It's a heavy European-like accent, very similar to Russian. Also, more action in this chapter.

Part 4: The First Encounter

"The Butterfly Kunais are ahead," the little electronic device informed her. Jack had dropped them off- he had said he had 'things to do, people to see'... _'yeah right' _Raven couldn't help but think. It had been two weeks of checking in at the mansion, but there hadn't been any shen-gong-wu alarms until today. She had been staying outside the entire time, practicing her fighting techniques in the woods and then meeting up with Jack in the afternoons, mostly standing quietly in the corner and watching him work on some 'evil robot' or another...

The trees whizzed by like lightning as she swerved around them expertly... they were in some forest, and there wasn't a lot of room to move through the trees. Suddenly, she stopped short. There they were- the xiaolin warriors, gathered together in a large clearing. She quickly took a giant leap up into a tree and hid herself in the branches. Raven listened intently for the voices, and they came floating toward her.

"-there! No! Over there!! Ough..." That was Dojo, the dragon.

"Well which way is it?!" The tall, brown-haired, Hispanic boy asked impaciently.

Raven recognized him to be Raimundo.

"I'm not sure," Dojo answered, "it's coming from everywhere! The Butterfly Kunais must have been separated."

"My friends, a net spread wide captures more fish." the little monk, Omi, said.

"I know I've heard that one before. The little guy's beginning to repeat himself." Raimundo said, scratching his head.

"Omi's right. Let's split up," Kimiko, the little Japanese girl agreed.

Raimundo, Kimiko, Omi, and the big guy in the levis and cowboy hat, Clay, all set off in different directions. A few minutes later Raven still sat in the tree, leaning against the trunk with a bored expression on her face and her arms crossed.

"If you do not act, then you will not complete your mission."

Raven looked up into the sky, ignoring the little robot that had begun to hover in front of her. "So you think," she said patiently, closing her eyes as a ray of light peaked through the trees and warmed her face. She smiled contentedly behind her black mask.

Almost that moment, a voice called out below, "Hey ya'll! I found one!"

"Me, too!"

"Same here!"

Raven chuckled, looking down as the four gathered around in the clearing once again, dropping a butterfly-shaped kunai each into a small velvet pouch. "They almost make this too easy," she said to herself in amusement. In a flash, one of her long leather whips was in her hand, and in a quick, fluid-like movement, Raven glided down the tree to the ground.

Dojo was the first to notice her appearance. "Agh! Don't look now, but we've got company!" he cried, moving back.

They all swerved around and faced her.

"I thank you all for finding the shen-gong-wu for me," she said curtly, looking them over. They were all only children, around Jack's age or younger; she didn't want to hurt them. "But now I require that you hand them over."

"Not a chance!" Kimiko said.

All at once, they jumped into action.

"Have it your way," Raven said.

"Silk-spinner!" Raimundo cried, pointing the gun-like weapon at her from the air and leading the others with the first strike.

She easily dodged the flying web, and as Raimundo was getting over the shock, she jumped and snatched the Silk-Spinner out of his hand and grabbed the back of his shirt in one move, then before he had realized it, he was stuck between two trees by a large, sticky web. Raven looked around her, then jumped back to the ground, securing the shen-gong-wu onto her belt.

"Orb of Tornami! Ice!" shouted Omi, rushing forward.

Raven crouched low to the ground and the icy water flowed over her head and froze into a crystal behind her. She lashed out with her whip and grabbed hold of Omi's ankle, then slung him into the air, strait into the same web that held the struggling Raimundo.

The Orb fell with a clunk to the ground, and Raven scooped it up with just enough time to swing around as Kimiko cried "Eye of Dashi! Fire!" and blasted a red bolt of energy strait at her. Raven realized in the millisecond that she had that she couldn't dodge the attack, and it hit her square in the chest, knocking her backward into the trunk of a large oak. Kimiko cried out in victory as Raven sat stock-still on the ground with her back against the tree. Both Clay and Kimiko stepped forward.

The little robot was as restless as a robot could be as it watched the scene unfold below it. The girl had lost...!

"Impossible," the machine said. Raven was gone!

_"You have no faith, my metallic friend,"_ said a voice that only the little bot could hear.

"Guys! Behind you!" Dojo called, giving Clay and Kimiko just enough time to spin around to see the blur of Raven before they were both thrown backward onto the ground.

"For ruining my suit," Raven said, indicating the large hole in the black material. "And THIS for my paycheck." She grabbed them both by the fronts of their shirts and hurled them into the air, then whipped the Silk-spinner out of her belt and fired, pinning them both between two trees; across the clearing from Raimundo and Omi. Raven scooped up the Orb of Tornami- she had dropped it when she had been hit- and then jumped up onto a branch in front of Kimiko and Clay.

They stared at her loathingly, and she returned with a blank, bored expression. She took the Eye of Dashi from Kimiko, poking her hard in the solar plexus and forcing her to drop it, then the pouch containing the Butterfly Kunais from Clay's belt. Then she stood back and looked around at the four Dragon Apprentices.

"Nothing personal," she said calmly, tucking the new shen-gong-wu into her belt. She jumped from the tree onto the ground and began walking with her back to them, pausing only for a moment to look over her shoulder and say under her breath, "... and good luck... next time."


	5. Chapter 5: Bonding

Part 5: Bonding

"Where is Spicer?!" Raven cried in aggravation. "He was supposed to have arrived an hour ago!" She was pacing back and forth on the edge of the forest, her hands balled into fists and the shen-gong-wu in a pile by one of the trees.

Mini-robo floated by the shen-gong-wu, watching Raven's progress back and forth. "Have patience. The Evil One will be here soon."

Raven stopped. "I am... wait... the EVIL one? You cannot mean-" Raven literally fell over laughing. "JACK?? Hahahaha, I cannot- hahaha, breath-" Raven was cut off by the sound of hover-jet engines being propelled in their direction. She scooped up the shen-gong-wu and stood as the thing came to a stop in front of her. "Oh 'evil one', where have you-" The top opened- and Raven did a double-take to make sure she was seeing right.

It was Jack, all right. In a tux. Wearing a very sour expression.

"Should I inquire...?" Raven slung herself into the hovering craft.

Jack said nothing, clenching the steering wheel tightly and wearing a scowl that obviously meant _NO_. They took off into the sky, and Raven looked out the glass at the scenery below them. It really was beautiful, once you stopped to look at it...

"Boy... what is on your mind?" she relented about a quarter of an hour later. Raven saw Jack flip a switch and a light come on that read "AUTO PILOT."

He laid back in his chair exhaustedly, but didn't turn around. "My parents... I had to explain where I keep going when I'm supposed to be at school."

Raven's eyes went wide. "You do not attend school?"

"It's not like I need to go! I already know it all! They-"

"-have not taken notice of your 'brilliance'' and do not believe when you say that you are on a quest to obtain magical objects in order to 'rule the world', correct?"

"They think it's an overactive imagination..."

Raven couldn't blame them, but couldn't bring herself to say it. She had always seen Jack as a big-headed, whiny, cowardly little mama's boy; it was strange to see him actually _upset_ about something so personal. "What did you tell them?" She crouched down beside the boy.

"Well, it was at one of their dumb parties. They asked me about it, and I didn't want to embar-" he cut himself off, then said, "I told them that I had a private tutor. They were thrilled, and now they want to meet him." He sunk lower in his chair.

Raven would have normally gotten silent and waited for a change in subject, but now- "Is there anything I can do?" she asked sympathetically, laying a hand on his shoulder. Then she realized she had said it and mentally slapped herself. Why didn't she just let him figure it out on his own? It was his own fault, anyway... but somehow, it felt better to try and bail him out. She realized that moment. with a jolt, that she had made some kind of connection with Jack over the past weeks. She wasn't exactly sure how, but she felt like they shared a common bond...

"That's it!" Jack cried, sitting up suddenly, grinning widely. "You can pretend to be my tutor!"

Raven's eyes went wide as she came to her feet. No way, she thought. I won't do it. Not for him, not for anyone, I wouldn't do it if I was paid- she froze. ...well, she thought, at least it'll be just me and his parents...

...

"A party?! No, a banquet...? A ball? WHATEVER THIS IS SUPPOSED TO BE!!" she paced back and forth under her tree.

The invitation was lying at the trunk innocently.

"Why me?? WHY??" she yelled at it, throwing her hands in the air with aggrivation.

A formal ball was being held to honor something-or-another, and all the important people would be there. From the President of the US to the Prime Minister to the Queen of England... it would be easier to name who wouldn't be there except for the fact that THAT list would be empty. Hundreds of important people would be there, from rulers to famous actors. It was likely that a hired fighter in the midst of all this wouldn't sit well. Not just that, there were two other problems as well: One, she distrusted people in general. In her opinion, every human being on earth or off it was a threat to her. Two, she had to wear a dress. She didn't DO dresses. Not anymore. Not since... she couldn't remember. When was the last time she had worn a dress...? And it would be harder to disguise herself if she were completely exposed. She could never tell where They would be. They could find her- this form wasn't good enough to hide her. Who were They again...? It was strange... she couldn't remember...

She dropped to the grass and crossed her legs, allowing her head to fall into her hands. _Now what? _

The place would be crawling with security guards and bodyguards, so she wouldn't be able to take her weapons with her. She couldn't take chances with the guards...

Who would also be protecting her, she realized suddenly. She didn't like to once again be on that side of their duty... had she been before?

One week. That's all she had.


End file.
